( 1 ) THIS is an application by a husband who has been ordered under Section 488 Cr. P. C. , by a magistrate to pay to his wife maintenance at the rate of Rs. 40/- per month. The marriage is admitted and it is also admitted that the wife has been living with her parents since 1951. There were two issues of the union, a son and a daughter; the wife left the matrimonial home in 1950-51 or earlier with the son, leaving the daughter with the husband. The son died while in her custody arid the daughter is being brought up by the husband. The wife complained that she was beaten and turned out by the husband in 1951 because she was ugly; to prove this she examined only her brother, who, however, could not give any evidence as an eye-witness because be was not present at the time when the wife left the husbands home. The wife did not care to come into the witness-box to depose about the circumstances in which she left her husband. The husband came into the witness-box and deposed that the wife herself deserted him because he was suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis and was greatly indebted. He further stated that he tried to bring her back but she refused to live with him.